| Date | 10 December 1998 |
|---|---|
| Started | 15:00 |
| Ended | 18:15 |
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Agenda item 46 (continued)
Fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(a) Fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Acting President
I call first on the representative of Benin.
Mr. Yacoubou (Benin)
The speakers preceding me have already made statements eloquently describing the great significance of this memorable day, when the international community is commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The tone and content of the statements, in particular those of the Secretary-General, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the President of the General Assembly show the special interest and commitment that the United Nations has always had for matters relating to human rights.
Through the award ceremony for the human rights prizes, our Organization has shown that human rights are a matter of concern to all individuals and groups of individuals, each of whom should, in his or her own way, contribute to enhancing those rights.
The delegation of Benin welcomes this initiative and congratulates the laureates of the human rights prizes on their commitment to this great cause. The awards reflect not only merit, but also and above all they encourage us to struggle to preserve the dignity of the human person.
The importance and value that each State attaches to human rights issues should be highlighted on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary and be reflected in the way in which it commemorates this day.
Like other countries, Benin is doing its best to practice democracy and, in a culture of human rights, to celebrate this important event in a very special way. Our observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights centres around two complementary programmes, one being carried out by the National Committee to Prepare and Organize the Fiftieth Anniversary, established by the Government, and the other arising from civil society and coordinated by the Institute on Human Rights and the Promotion of Democracy.
The overall programme includes several national and departmental seminars and workshops and several conferences and meetings to discuss the themes of the Declaration, in French and in the national languages. Some of our events are travelling programmes and are geared towards students in colleges and schools, and towards the public security forces. We also have "open house" days at institutions which promote and defend human rights, cultural activities focusing on human rights, particularly relating to the rights of women and children, a press campaign and radio and television broadcasts in French and in national languages. In addition we have groups travelling throughout the country to bring the message of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to people who live in the most remote corners of our country.
Our programme began on 16 November 1998 and will end on 12 December. We could not have implemented it without technical and financial assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other development partners who contributed substantially to organizing the events.
I have described in brief what Benin has been doing to commemorate this fiftieth anniversary in order to demonstrate how much the Government remains committed to promoting human rights and respect for the related international instruments, particularly the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.
The objective sought in the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was to eliminate once and for all the spectre of war which twice had brought great suffering to mankind and whose main causes included the violation of human rights.
Unfortunately, however, despite all that the international community has done, the human race continues, on the eve of the twenty-first century, to witness the tragic theatre of deadly and genocidal conflicts and horrible acts, mostly because of religious fundamentalism and the exacerbation of racial, ethnic and social discrimination policies.
The international covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the various international human rights conventions, constitute the effective international instruments which must help promote human rights.
The educational and informational preventive action of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, 1995-2004, is part of a strategy to sow in the hearts of man the seeds of peace, tolerance and non-violence.
The Acting President
I now call on the representative of Mozambique.
Mr. dos Santos (Mozambique)
We feel greatly honoured and privileged to take part in this momentous occasion of the celebration of the golden anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This historic universal instrument has been and remains the guidepost of our relations as human beings. Celebrating the Universal Declaration is celebrating our humanity and our humanness, for to uphold the provisions of the Declaration is to uphold the reason of our being; it is respecting and protecting our dignity.
Today more than ever before, we have reasons to celebrate our achievements in the implementation of human rights instruments that aim at ensuring respect for and protection of the fundamental freedoms of all peoples. By establishing, disseminating and fulfilling the obligations stemming from international legal instruments, the international community, of which we are all an integral part, has been able to promote understanding among communities, peoples and nations. The value of international cooperation in the field of human rights has been recognized by virtually all countries of our planet.
As we gather here today to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration, we should pause and reflect on the wealth of experience we have gathered and use it to develop creative and objective approaches to the field of human rights. Such approaches should contribute towards a broader acceptance of the norms set by international human rights law. Of particular importance in this regard are the two fundamental principles of universality and indivisibility of human rights.
At the dawn of a new century and a new millennium, it is our duty to recommit and rededicate ourselves to the ultimate goal of ensuring all human rights for all. In so doing we will be paying a well-deserved tribute to all those men and women who gave their lives in defence of fundamental freedoms and rights.
We in Mozambique look to this commemoration as an occasion to educate ourselves on the scope and magnitude of human rights and fundamental freedoms, taking into account that the promotion and protection of these rights is essentially everyone's responsibility. We recognize the primary responsibility of the State to ensure the enjoyment of human rights by citizens. The Constitution of our country provides for a society of social justice in which material and spiritual well-being is created without discrimination on the basis of race, gender, ethnic origin or religious affiliation. As we rebuild our country, coming out of a devastating war, we are developing a culture of peace based on reconciliation, tolerance, solidarity and respect for human rights.
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Government of Mozambique has prepared a nationwide programme of activities which involve all sectors of our society. The intention is to ensure that no one will be left out and that everyone will have an opportunity to know more about his or her rights as an individual and as part of a community. The key element of those celebrations is human rights education, because without knowledge people cannot claim their rights or report human rights violations.
Our ultimate goal is to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and disease, which constitute the major stumbling block to the enjoyment of rights and freedoms by our people. In our efforts we pay special attention to those who suffer the most: women and children. We are constantly improving our capacity to deal effectively with these challenges. In this context, we would like to underscore the need for the preservation of the integrated, interdependent and indivisible nature of all categories of rights, where political and civil rights, economic, social and cultural rights are treated equally.
We agree with the Secretary-General when he states that the right to development is the measure of the respect of all other rights. We therefore identify ourselves with the purposes and objectives of the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development.
The establishment, last July at Rome, of the International Criminal Court represents a remarkable contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights all over the world. In Rome we created an unprecedented comprehensive legal framework to safeguard human rights and bring to justice those responsible for the most heinous crimes witnessed by humanity, such as those committed recently in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate Mozambique's commitment to the Universal Declaration and to our collective responsibility to ensure that the horrors and uncertainties of the past and the continued violations of fundamental human rights are not repeated in the new millennium. We must collectively devise appropriate strategies and find ways and means which will enable future generations to live in harmony, peace and sustainable development.
The Acting President
I call next on the representative of Monaco.
Mr. Boisson (Monaco)
--> -->
| <type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'> | Python 2.6.6: /usr/bin/python Sat May 25 01:29:29 2013 |
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in |
| 194 if __name__ == "__main__": |
| 195 pathpart = os.getenv("PATH_INFO") |
| 196 maintrunk(pathpart) |
| 197 |
| 198 |
| maintrunk = <function maintrunk>, pathpart = '/generalassembly_53/meeting_87' |
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in maintrunk(pathpart='/generalassembly_53/meeting_87') |
| 131 elif pagefunc == "gameeting": |
| 132 LogIncomingDB(hmap["docid"], hmap["gadice"] or "0", referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| 133 WriteHTML(hmap["htmlfile"], hmap["pdfinfo"], hmap["gadice"], hmap["highlightdoclink"]) |
| 134 elif pagefunc == "agendanumexpanded": |
| 135 LogIncomingDB(pagefunc, hmap["agendanum"], referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| global WriteHTML = <function WriteHTML>, hmap = {'docid': 'A-53-PV.87', 'gadice': '', 'gameeting': 87, 'gasession': 53, 'highlightdoclink': None, 'htmlfile': '/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-53-PV.87.html', 'pagefunc': 'gameeting', 'pdfinfo': <pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>} |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteHTML(fhtml='/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-53-PV.87.html', pdfinfo=<pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>, gadice='', highlightth=None) |
| 322 if dclass == "spoken": |
| 323 if not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice: |
| 324 WriteSpoken(gid, dtextmu, councilpresidentnation) |
| 325 elif dclass == "subheading": |
| 326 if agendagidcurrent and (not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice): |
| global WriteSpoken = <function WriteSpoken>, gid = u'pg003-bk02', dtextmu = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Bois... a daily reality for all peoples and nations.</p>', councilpresidentnation = None |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteSpoken(gid=u'pg003-bk02', dtext=u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Bois... a daily reality for all peoples and nations.</p>', councilpresidentnation=None) |
| 69 print '</cite>' |
| 70 |
| 71 print dtext[mspek.end(0):] |
| 72 |
| 73 print '</div>' |
| dtext = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Bois... a daily reality for all peoples and nations.</p>', mspek = <_sre.SRE_Match object>, mspek.end = <built-in method end of _sre.SRE_Match object> |
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args =
('ascii', u'\n\t<p id="pg003-bk02-pa01">Let us cast our minds ... a daily reality for all peoples and nations.</p>', 996, 997, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
encoding =
'ascii'
end =
997
message =
''
object =
u'\n\t<p id="pg003-bk02-pa01">Let us cast our minds ... a daily reality for all peoples and nations.</p>'
reason =
'ordinal not in range(128)'
start =
996